PLANS for Bridgnorth’s much vaunted Whitburn Street relief road have been an aspiration of the county and district councils for almost 30 years. The long-awaited £1m scheme will finally come to fruition on Monday morning when the road is officially opened.
“Originally the scheme was going to be taken forward by the district council, but was withdrawn in 1980 when it was apparent that there was little possibility of it being constructed in the short term because of restrictions on capital resources,” explained Laura Owen, communications officer for economy and the environment at Shirehall.
An officers’ report to the county council’s planning and transport committee in March 1986 — after the county council took on responsibility — recommended that ‘safeguarding a line for the relief road be discussed with the district council on the basis that the proposed development introduces the possibility of earlier construction, particularly if there are contributions from potential developers’.
Officers reported that a relief road would greatly improve the possibility of traffic management measures in the town centre, ‘particularly relieving the constraints imposed by the Northgate itself and possibly leading to some pedestrianisation’.
They added that county council resources were not available for the road to be built without significant contributions from potential developers.
County councillors heard in 1994 that it was difficult to acquire the necessary land with the situation regarding the old Northgate Garage particularly complex.
A public inquiry was held into a compulsory purchase scheme in 1996 and was confirmed by the Secretary of State for Transport the following year. A legal challenge against the decision was unsuccessful.
Planning permission for the road was eventually granted in 1996 and a bid was put forward for Government funding in 1998, but it was unsuccessful and Shirehall was unable to take the scheme forward.
The district council gave planning permission in 1999 to Sainsbury’s for a scheme financed by the supermarket giant with the relief road being part of a legal agreement.